Just Another Day
by flipfloppingotaku
Summary: This was what I really wanted to write. Just an average day for the TF2 crew plus a whip happy new member and her sharp, furry friend. T for violence and cussing, like everyone expects from these loonies.


**If you want to really read this, I would suggest looking at 'Meet the Tamer' first. Not terribly necessary I don't think, but it might help provide a little more insight to the OC.**

**As always, I'm a near broke college kid who owns almost nothing…except a possessed teddy bear.**

Just Another Day

/

Mornings were hell. At least they were without coffee. The strongest, thickest, blackest coffee that could darken the soul just by putting a cup of the stuff to your lips. That was Sniper's opinion anyway, and just like every morning, the grumpy Aussie was resolved not to speak or look at anyone until he had drained at least one mug of his precious black gold.

None of the others cared for the foul concoction Sniper dared to call a drink, and that suited him just fine, more for him then. As he waited for his brew to be ready, Sniper decided he wanted to sit outside and enjoy the scenery. He was confident that he would hear the beep of the percolator as long as things stayed quiet around his camper. No one really visited him, and he was fine with that too.

Still a little blurry eyed with sleep, Sniper pulled on the first pair of pants he could find as well as his shoes and aviators before heading for the door. The moment he opened it, a thick, orange striped tail smacked him in the face. He yelped and swatted the offending appendage away, then stepped outside to look at what was on top of his camper.

"As if I didn' already know…" he grumbled to himself.

Once outside, Sniper aimed a stern and frustrated glare at the giant cat that was currently snoozing on top of his vehicle. This was the third time this week that this had happened; did Tamer have NO control over that animal?

Said animal let out an enormous yawn and shifted his head to be a little more comfortable. Sniper was then faced with a choice: either chance going back in the camper to get a shirt and stop his coffee from boiling over (with the very-not-a-morning-person tiger on top,) or head into the base shirtless to get the Tamer so she could _make_ the beast move.

His final decision was not an easy one to make.

/

Meanwhile in the base, the crew was gathering in the mess hall for breakfast. Pyro was cooking again, which automatically guaranteed everything would be at least a little bit burnt, but edible all the same. Tamer however was in no mood for burnt food, in fact, she wasn't in the mood for any kind of food at all. She had been feeling a little off last night and was having trouble getting to sleep. Even the normally comforting warmth and softness of Raj wasn't enough to settle the uncomfortable churning in her stomach.

Eventually, she just let Raj outside for the night. Maybe she just needed a little space in her bed for once. According to her alarm clock at least, it was four in the morning before her body settled into a light and fitful state that vaguely resembled being asleep. Obviously that wasn't very restful, but she still managed to force herself to get up and dressed when the alarm went off precisely and hour and a half later. Her gut was still twisting.

In this ill feeling and unrested state, it was a wonder that she had the will to say anything to anyone in the morning, but she managed a quiet '_ksama karem_ (excuse me)' as she edged around Pyro to get to the refrigerator. To her relief, there was an untouched bottle of apple juice on one of the shelves, and she quickly poured a glass for herself before going to sit at a table. The gas-masked…person cocked his head a bit, confused as to why she hadn't taken any food, but returned to the process of frying bacon.

When Tamer sat with her single glass of apple juice, she ended up only taking tiny sips. For some reason, even that felt like an unwelcome addition to her stomach. Eventually she gave up on even sipping and just sat staring into space with the mostly full glass in her hand. Heavy, who either wasn't reading the signs very well or knew them and wanted to check what was wrong, took a seat next to her with a heaping plate of scorched waffles.

"Leetle Tamer must eat da? Give her strength for battle today."

Tamer took one look at the plate Heavy had offered and immediately turned away, the twisting in her stomach becoming tighter at the sight of food.

"My _pita_ (dad) always said that eating so much when you don't need it makes you ill."

She hoped that Heavy would get the hint and take away the food. She didn't want to be rude, Heavy was a great friend who meant well, but she just couldn't take this right now. Heavy raised an eyebrow at this response, but seemed to understand what was going on.

"Tamer not feeling so good today?" He asked, clearly concerned. If there was anyone who cared about the well-being of his teammates, it was Heavy. Tamer gave the big man a weak smile. He was a lot like Raj in her eyes, gentle with friends, if they didn't mind playing a little rough; and fierce with enemies.

"Don't worry about it Heavy, I'll be fine."

This reply seemed to satisfy the Russian for the time being and he decided to eat the waffles himself. It was at this moment that a bare-chested Sniper came in, his face clearly showing the effects of a recent and unexpected adrenaline rush.

"Tamer, that bloody cat of yours is asleep on my camper again." He said, not bothering to disguise just how annoyed he was. Tamer sighed and took a gulp of her juice, shook off the protests of her gut and went over to accompany Sniper to take care of his problem.

/

"Raj."

No response.

"Raj!"

A twitch in the tail, but not much else. Tamer grumbled to herself, she did not want to deal with one of her tiger's belligerent days right now. He was still a wild animal at heart, and no amount of skill on her part could erase that, so there were days when Raj just didn't want to cooperate.

"Raj, I know you can hear me! Get your furry butt down here!"

The great tiger still refused to obey. On another day, Tamer might have just told Sniper that he'd have to deal with it and just wait for him to climb down on his own, but this attitude was just NOT acceptable right now. She hated resorting to this, but it was the only way to make the tiger obey for certain. As her hand went to the whip on her belt, Sniper realized what was about to happen and backed off to give her enough space to use her weapon. At the same time, he realized that the girl seemed unusually short fused. He had never seen her turn her whip on the monster she called a pet, she loved him too much.

Once the whip was out, Tamer lashed once at the ground, letting the sound say what she couldn't. This got the tiger's attention very quickly. His head shot straight up and he turned to look at his master. He knew just how much trouble he was in.

"Get. Down. From. There. NOW!"

Raj hesitated for a moment, as if uncertain if she was serious. He made the wise decision though and got up and off of the camper, making the vehicle shake as he moved. Tamer sighed and recoiled her whip.

"There, he shouldn't do that again for some time." Tamer said. The movement of her arm to use her whip had sent a small shockwave through her body, as it usually did, but with her innards acting up, it did little to make her feel better. Once the weapon was on her belt again, one of her hands went to gently grip her aching midsection as a ripple of nausea threatened the back of her throat.

Sniper went in as soon as he was sure Raj wouldn't try to get back on his mobile home to save his coffee. A quick taste assured him that he had made it in time. When he leaned back out the door to thank his friend, she was already heading back to the base, Raj walking closer to her than Sniper would have expected for an animal that was just threatened with a painful lashing. Looking closer, he realized that the girl was actually leaning on the animal, as if she were unsteady on her feet.

Tamer's hand gripping her belly didn't escape Sniper's notice. His first thought was that it was just her time of the month. She had been around long enough for the team to figure out when that was and keep a wide berth, lest she sic her killer kitty on them, but this seemed different.

_Maybe some months are jus' worse then others._ The Aussie reasoned to himself, but he honestly wasn't so sure. He would just have to keep an extra eye on her during the fight today.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Strangely enough, the ripples of nausea that came with each swing of her whip made Tamer's attacks even more wild and unpredictable. Most of the BLUs were scared to get anywhere near her. That is until the enemy Soldier sent a rocket at her feet. She managed to see it at the last minute and jump away from the projectile, but the explosion still sent her through a wall. She groaned and forced herself up off of her back, her willpower wrestling with her desire to lose the contents of her woozy stomach. The willpower was winning, for now at least.

As she sat up, a stinging in her back told her that some of the remains of the wooden wall she just flew through had splintered and jammed in her back. No way to reach them on her own, and with no idea where Medic was, Tamer hauled herself to her feet and risked peeking out the way she came in. The psycho sergeant had moved on to a more open target, but was neglecting his rear. Tamer put down her whip in exchange for her rifle and took three shots at the man, two landing in his back near his spine. The Soldier fell dead or at least paralyzed and Tamer mentally patted herself on the head. Her back was too painful to think about.

Moving further into the open, she kept her eyes out for her team's Scout, hoping to assist him in his intel run again. In her brief pause, a high caliber shot rang and went straight through her right thigh, making her scream in pain as she was fell back to the ground. Neither Medic nor Scout were anywhere to be seen, and with the enemy Sniper targeting her, staying in one place was no longer an option. With agonized grunts, Tamer dragged herself back into the building she had crashed through before, out of the Sniper's view, and hopefully out of danger.

She contemplated letting herself lean against a wall or lying down to try and gather herself together again, but then she remembered the huge splinters in her back. With the man who shot her so far away, calling Raj would be pointless since he wouldn't know where to go to exact revenge for his master. Realizing that she had to stop the bleeding in her leg fast, Tamer tied her whip as tightly as she could around her leg just above the gushing bullet wound. In her position, the long, lashing cord wouldn't do much, so she was better off using her guns.

So what to do now? Call for help? That would give away her position and get her killed for sure. Respawn would fix that, sure, but that process usually left her feeling a little sick, and she was already struggling to hold back her liquid breakfast. Wait out the match? No one knew where she was, and in her condition it would be agonizing to make it back to base herself. The repsawn machines deactivated after each match too, so there would also be the possibility of dying for real. She didn't have to think about it much more as she suddenly felt a presence behind her. She was too sluggish to react though and ended up with a blue mask next to her face and a butterfly knife at her throat.

"All alone _mon cher_?"

"_Mal…_ (Shit)" Tamer whispered, swallowing nervously against the sharp blade.

"Your performance today has been erratic and clumsy. Is something on your mind _cirque fille_ (circus girl)?"

Tamer had never made it a secret that she grew up with the circus. That was how she learned to use a whip in the first place. Her father was the lion tamer and wanted to pass on the knowledge of his trade. His daughter did become incredibly skilled at the act, and even took it further by teaching herself to use it as a deadly weapon against people. Everyone at the circus had a little something wrong with them, and her problem was being a typical hyperactive child that had access to a weapon and knowledge of how to use it to take strips of skin off a man's back. For all intents and purposes, she _was_ a circus girl.

But when the slimy BLU Spy said it, the phrase was suddenly offensive.

"_Sambhog karna bakri admi…_ (Go fuck a goat you bastard.)"

"Ho ho, the tiger tamer has a mouth on her." The Spy smirked. One of his hands trailed down her back to one of the larger bits of wood stuck there and gave it a push. Tamer did her best not to make a sound, but a tiny distressed noise managed to escape her anyway.

"Don't even think about using that whistle _fille_, I will slit your throat before you can touch it."

The situation was not good at all. Her right leg was all but useless and her back was full of splinters. Her only hope now would be to call Raj but even that option was denied. She could only guess at what BLU Spy wanted with her, whether it was just to toy with her through torture, or something more sinister. On top of all that, her head was still foggy with nausea. She was contemplating leaning into the knife to escape through suicide and just end up back in respawn, where she would gladly give up on willing herself not to hurl, when the sounds of gunshots began to get closer. The RED Demoman rolled in through the massive hole in the wall to escape the BLU Sniper when he saw what was going on.

"Bloody Spy! Get yer hands off the lass raht noo!" He yelled at the masked mercenary, cocking his grenade launcher.

"Demo no! Get back out there!"

"_Oui, _you should do as _cirque fille_ says highlander." Spy taunted, hauling Tamer to her unsteady feet. "Do you really think you can save her with bombs?"

Demoman's brow knit in frustration. He wasn't much in the planning department, but he had to think of something fast. If he used his grenades, he would probably just end up hurting Tamer even more.

"I'm serious Demo, beat it! Scout needs you more than I do!"

"Lass, ye' must be mad if ya think I'm just gonna leave ya here with tha' snake!"

"GO HELP SCOUT YOU SLOSHED UP CYCLOPS!"

Tamer had completely run out of fucks to give, the aggravation just wasn't worth it. Before either of the men knew what was what, she dropped her gun, grabbed the knife wielding arm Spy had at her neck and garroted herself a lot more easily than a person should have been capable of doing. Both men watched in shock as her body fell to the ground, blood pooling from her neck. Demo then realized what she had just done. He gripped his launcher tighter and gave the BLU Spy a wicked grin.

/

Respawn picked up the damaged body of Tamer quickly after she died. She was very aware of all her wounds closing and the splinters removed, as if the events that caused them were happening in reverse slow-motion. The sniper round flying backwards through her leg, the wood bits shooting out of their places in her back, and of course, the flesh of her neck fusing back together from a vicious self-inflicted cut. The pain apparently worked in reverse too, and it was all happening at the same time.

The first time she had been killed and reborn in respawn, her nerves were shaken to the very core, and she had to sit out the rest of the fight. As she died again and again in more battles, the feeling became a regular part of life, as weird as that may sound. Like the others had, she just got used to it and learned to deal with the stress of rebirth, but this time was somehow worse. Though it fixed up her injuries, it did nothing for her nausea and murky head, and the pain was the straw that finally broke her.

The moment Tamer emerged in the respawn room; she went straight to her knees and released the mess that had been plaguing her all day. She stopped caring about how it would look to her teammates, or how the battle would go without her, or who would clean up her mess, and just let the muscles in her throat, chest and midsection work to purge whatever her body thought was a threat to her health. Nothing solid came up at all, because nothing solid went in, but the effort to even bring that up was excruciating to her exhausted mind and body. It took several minutes for her to stop retching and when she was sure she was done, she just collapsed on her side, narrowly avoiding landing in the puddle of bile and acid.

She lay there for a long time. Or at least it seemed that way. No one had respawned since she had arrived, or if they did, they arrived in front of her and had rushed back into the fray, too focused on fighting to notice her. She heard the announcer call out the RED team's victory and sighed. At least she hadn't held Demoman back too long to help the team achieve this. Much to her surprise, Demoman was the first to come back. He had even come alone while the others finished off the other team. The moment he saw her lying on the cold, concrete floor, he rushed over, dropped his weapons and picked up her head, shouting curses at himself for not coming to check sooner.

"Ah'm such a fool, Heavy said there was somethin' wrong with ya this morning', ah didn't think it was this bad! And when tha' backstabber had ye in sooch bad shape ah shoulda known to come here…"

Tamer was too tired to argue with him at his volume. She considered just letting him rant himself out, but staying silent would probably just make him more worried.

"…shut up…_kana_ (one-eye)..."

Demo seemed to perk up some after hearing her speak, even if it was a jab at his handicap. That just meant she was still herself. He carefully lifted Tamer off the ground to carry her bridal style. The smell of the man wasn't exactly helping her sick feeling, but she had already drained herself of that.

"Dun worry lass, ah'll git the doc to look ye over an' ye'll be fine."

As he spoke, a few more of the team came in and saw the scene. Medic wasn't really needed to clean up the escaping BLUs, and Sniper and Engie found the activity distasteful. Not very sporting if they're unarmed is it?

"Aaah, were you sick on the floor agin ya booza?" Sniper groaned looking at the vomit puddle at Demo's feet. The explosives expert turned to glare at Sniper.

"Jus' cuz I get a wee bit excited durin' a fest doesn't mean tha' ah'm the only one who leaves stains!"

As he turned, the others saw the sickly Tamer in his arms. Medic hurried over to check her condition, Tamer letting him poke and prod her without resistance.

"She did not get like zis all of a sudden, she must have been ill for a vile now." The German doctor shook his head disapprovingly. "Vhy does no one ever come to me _before_ zhey get in zis condition?"

"Holy Moses, yer tellin' me she went out in the field like this?!"

"What's the big deal…urp…" Tamer groggily whined. "Scout does it all the time…"

"Ja, and he always regrets it later, but he never learns. I had hoped zhat you vere more intelligent zhan zhat."

The dark skinned girl made a face and turned away from the doctor, a silent admission that he was right. Medic sighed and spoke to Demo.

"Come, ve vill take her to ze medical bay."

\\\\\\\\\

After a brief, but thorough examination and a few questions about symptoms, the good doctor had a diagnosis. Demoman was asked to leave right away for the sake of decency. Medic's small flock of doves perched on whatever they could find to better watch their caretaker work.

"Looks like just a tventy-four hour flu." He concluded after rechecking the lymph-nodes on her neck. "It should be gone by zis time tomorrow at vorst and by morning at best. Not much to be done besides vaiting it out."

Tamer sighed heavily from her prone position on one of the cots in the medical bay.

"So I guess joining the fight tomorrow is out of the question?"

"Ja. Even if you feel right as rain in ze morning, I must insist zat you stay in bed all day tomorrow."

Her dark haired, bandanna covered head nodded in agreement as one particularly curious bird flapped next to her head. She smiled at it, knowing it was Archimedes, the most people friendly of the flock. She hadn't had cause to visit the doctor often, aside from the brief surgery that gave her an ubercharge, (a procedure Medic was most excited about, he had never put one in a woman before,) but when they did meet, they bonded over his birds. Tamer was obviously an animal-loving person, and the flock generally seemed to like her more than the rest of the doctor's patients. Medic of course, couldn't say quite the same thing about Raj and would never let the tiger in his workspace. Being large in a small space inevitably led to important things being knocked over.

Tamer grunted as she tried to get up from the cot with the intent of going back to her room, but a firm and slightly forceful hand pushed her back down.

"And vhen I say 'stay in bed,' I mean stay _here._ I do not vant you sleeping on zhat ruined mattress vith your pet."

Tamer opened her mouth to protest, but Medic would not have any excuses.

"It is unsanitary, and the air in your room is already stifling I'm sure vith the smell of tiger dander. It vill do nothing to help you heal."

The girl trapped on the bed snorted.

"And the smell of bird shit is better because why?"

"He! My birds are very clean, and don't cause nearly ze mess your_ katze_ does."

Tamer decided against further arguing. It was giving her a headache.

"Also, you vill need fluids. I vas told that you couldn't even keep zat down zough, so you vill need to take zem intravenously."

Brown eyes immediately widened with fear. She didn't have a real fear of needles, at least not before she came here, but seeing how the Medic used them made her wary of them in his hands. She knew better than to struggle though, that would only make it worse. She squeezed her eyes shut and did her best to think of anything else besides the nausea and the coming sharpness of the doctor's needle. The techniques of her whip came to mind, but then she realized that he was swabbing her dominant arm, so that was out. Raj playing with his living food (now consisting mostly of BLUs,) was a better choice, but it also made her think of stroking him affectionately as he brought her the gift of an attacker's head.

_Dammit, what can I think about that doesn't involve my arm?_

The next idea that came to mind was what Raj was doing this morning, sleeping on top of Sniper's camper. Why would he do that? Well, he was a cat, maybe he liked the warmth that came from the vehicle when Sniper was inside. Maybe he had taken a liking to Sniper himself for some reason. That wasn't an unlikely possibility, they were pretty similar in personality and temperament. As Tamer continued to think on this, her expression relaxed and before she knew it, she was asleep.

Medic had long since finished putting in her IV and gently covered the sleeping girl with a sheet before retiring to his own room. Archimedes settled down next to her head and tucked his head under a wing, not taking long to set off to dreamland as well.

\\\\\\\\\

Outside the base, Sniper lay on the roof of his beloved camper with his hat over his face and a half empty beer bottle. His team sure could be stupid when it came to taking care of themselves. Their bad habits never seemed to really affect them though, Spy should have been long dead from some kind of cancer and Demoman's liver should have failed years ago. Even Scout wasn't exempt from this, his addiction to disgustingly sweet soft drinks was bound to give him diabetes someday. Of course, Sniper wasn't one to talk; he had habits that were just as bad. Of course all these unhealthy hobbies were really just coping mechanisms to deal with the madness they faced every day. He idly wondered if Tamer had any habits, he had yet to see her puff a cigarette or swallow a drop of liquor. At parties, she tended to stick with soft drinks.

The sharpshooter was jolted out of his morbid musings by something making his car/house shake enough to set off a Richter scale. The movement threatened to knock his beer off, but he caught it before it could fall.

"Wot the hell-" He shouted scrambling to set his hat right and see what was happening. It was the damned tiger again, trying to climb on the roof with him. Sniper groaned, he didn't need this aggravation. "Didn' your mum tell ya jus' this mornin' not to do that again ya rabid meatgrinder?"

Raj ignored Sniper's words and after another try, he made it up. He looked at Sniper with big, almost innocent orange eyes and nudged the man's foot with one giant paw. To say that the bushman was unnerved would be an understatement. He didn't know if the striped killing machine before him was toying with him or planning to have his innards for dinner. In his hunting days, Sniper learned quickly that running from a predator, especially one of the big cat family, that has you in its sights was the LAST thing you wanted to do. If you ran, that only confirmed that you were prey, and the lion or cougar or whatever it was would chase you and kill you without hesitation. More often the thing to do would be to stay still or make some kind of noise to scare away whatever it was, and if you had to move, do it slowly.

That's what Sniper did. He slowly moved his leg away from the enormous paw that prodded him. Raj moved closer, much closer than the immobile Aussie would have liked and nudged his side. He seemed to begin to understand what the tiger was trying to do, but he stood his ground, so to speak.

"Sorry mate, my home, my rules. You can' just shove me offa' the roof of me own home."

He put on the face he usually had when someone came to bother him with nothing. A mix of firmness, annoyance and 'get the hell out of my face.' Sure the food chain topper in front of him now was 'tame,' but there was always a chance that instinct would take over, and Sniper was in no position to defend himself. Instead of pushing Sniper again, Raj just found a way to squeeze around the man's body before plopping down to relax. The powerful animal's body took up most of the space on the roof, and his tail hung loosely over the back end. There was just enough room for the apprehensive Aussie to lay down again longways beside the beast, who appeared to leave it untouched on purpose. A little more of the picture became clear to Sniper as he realized that Raj had no intention of hurting him. In fact…it seemed like he wanted to cuddle.

"Ya miss yer mum eh? She can' be with you tonoight?" As he spoke, he carefully reached out to stroke the tiger's fur. To his relief, Raj allowed the contact. A slow hand moved to scratch under the tiger's chin, as if he were a house cat, and the striped 'menace' reacted like one, leaning in and enjoying the touch. Sniper marveled at the softness of the tiger's fur as he rubbed his neck under RED bandanna. The texture was a sign of how well Tamer took care of her pet and best friend. Sniper realized that this must have been what the extra shampoo bottles Tamer bought were for. She did always take over the showers after a battle, no one dared to go in, partly out of modesty, but because a good portion of their public style shower room would be taken up by a wet tiger as his master washed the day's blood out of his fur.

After a good amount of scratching, Sniper's arm grew tired and he lay back down, oddly comfortable with the huge, warm mass of fur beside him. Raj let out a huge yawn before he too lay down to rest.

"Aw! Bugger me, yor breath is awful!" Sniper exclaimed, waving his hat to fan away the stench of tiger breath. "How on earth does she DO it?"

After deciding he didn't give a fuck, Sniper put his hat back over his face to block out any more surprise smells. The warmth of the tiger was soothing despite the nearly intolerable heat and Sniper's thoughts turned to the tiger's master. She slept like this almost every night he realized. Curled and secure against a big, soft, furry body that time and again proved to be more loyal than most people he had ever met. That feeling of security, of being protected by something, no, some_one_ that would always come when you needed him most…that feeling was what Tamer was addicted to.

That was her flaw.

He chuckled softly to himself when he came to this conclusion.

_She'd make for an awfully clingy girlfriend._ Was his last thought before he too slipped into peaceful slumber.

**After discussing my OC with another TF2 player, I've made some crucial changes to the stats so she won't be so broken. Also, I don't actually know the Hindi language at all and have been usin - h**** . o r g.** **Not sure if it's accurate or not, but feel free to correct me or guide me to a better translator.**

**Tamer**

Nation of Origin: India

Health: 130

Speed: 100%

Type: Support

Long Range: Hunting Rifle

Mid-Range: AK-47

Short Range: Whip

Special: Tiger Call- When at 25 Health or below, the Tamer can use a whistle to call her Tiger, Raj, to attack the last player who hit her. Raj will leave if he successfully kills the targeted player, or is killed.

**Raj**

Health: 300 (same as Heavy)

Speed: 125% (slower than Scout, but still fast)

Weapons: Teeth and claws, no long range capabilities.


End file.
